266 panchayats in Mohali go to polls today

As many as 266 gram panchayats will go to polls in Mohali district on Tuesday. A total of 63 villages in the district have elected their panchayats unanimously.

The district has 46 hypersensitive and 103 sensitive polling booths where enhanced security measures have been taken.

Senior Superintendent of Police Deepak Pareek said to thwart any untoward incident during the panchayat elections, 2,000 police personnel have been deployed.

There are eight highly sensitive booths and 31 booths have been designated as sensitive in Dera Bassi block.

Bhakharpur, Mukandpur, Rajomajra, and Jharmari villages have multiple booths which are sensitive. In Mullanpur, there are eight contestants for the post of sarpanch. In Saneta, there are eight candidates in fray for the post of sarpanch. Similarly, Manauli village too is expected to see a keen contest.

Other villages where the contest is on an even keel are Kurada, Kuradi, Balongi, Badh Majra and Papri.

All the seasoned politicians of the different political parties have taken their own approach to the panchayat polls this time. While Congress leader Balbir Singh Sidhu is actively backing his favoured candidates, AAP’s Mohali MLA has distanced himself from the polls.

Dera Bassi MLA Kuljit Singh Randhawa and Dera Bassi Congress in-charge Deepinder Singh Dhillon have been trading charges of influencing nomination process. SAD leader NK Sharma has been vocal about the AAP’s alleged interference in rejecting nomination papers of his supporters.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Aashika Jain and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Deepak Pareek took a round of despatch centres and hypersensitive booths today.

Visiting the despatch centre at Government School 3B1, Mohali, hypersensitive booth, Landran, and despatch centre, Government College, Dera Bassi, the DC and SSP issued the instructions to the officers to maintain law and order.

15 hypersensitive booths in Rupnagar

As many as 472 panchayats in five blocks of the Rupnagar district will go to polls on Tuesday. A total of 611 panchayats in five blocks of Anandpur Sahib, Rupnagar, Nurpur Bedi, Morinda and Chamkaur Sahib will go to polls. There are 15 hypersensitive booths and 115 sensitive booths in Rupnagar district. The stay by High Court has been vacated at Burewal and Chaklan so polling would be held there.

Rupnagar Deputy Commissioner Himanshu Jain today reviewed the process of dispatching the polling parties at the Government College and appealed to the youth to exercise their democratic right. He appealed to the voters to cast their vote without fear and cooperate with the administration to maintain peace during the elections.